新興演化工具 BBRD 的視覺化

生物資訊學乃係利用電腦來輔助解讀生物資料，然而，只要是利用到電腦的分析方法都無法避免使用程式對資料進行分析運算，但並非所有程式的使用方式皆平易近人。常見的程式使用方式可以分為兩種，一為純粹文字的命令列介面 (Command Line Interface, CLI)，另一個則是圖像使用者介面 (Graphical User Interface, GUI)，前者執行快速、電腦資源消耗較少，但使用上並不直覺，後者使用方便，但消耗較多的電腦資源。本實驗室與亞洲大學王經篤老師實驗室所合作的演化工具，是基於皮爾森相關係數 (Pearson’s correlation coefficient) 與NCBI BLAST的方法，使用方式是在CLI中使用兩組核心程式－NCBI BLAST及PCC-HC。因此，為了方便使用，便以核心程式為中心，進行GUI的開發。成功對核心程式建立GUI、增添對生物序列檢查的副程式以及兩組核心程式的自動化，使得使用上方便許多，降低因生物序列檔案內容錯誤而得到失敗之結果，並將此演化工具更名為 BBRD－BLAST-Based Relative Distance。

Bioinformatics is a field that uses computer as aid for clarify and understand the biological data. However, when we analysis the data, we must use the software as tools to estimate and get results, but not everyone is easy as ABC. no matter how large the software programs, the operations could separate in several ways, most are command line interface (CLI) and graphical user interface (GUI). Prior one is only use text commands to manipulate programs, it have benefits like calculate faster and cost less resources of computer, but it’s not so instinct. Another is creating graphical interface, e.g., using icon and button to manipulate programs. It is easy to use but cost more resource. We collaborated with Dr. Jing-Doo Wang in Asia University to develop a phylogenetic tool, named BBRD that rely on NCBI BLAST and Pearson’s correlation coefficient (PCC). The BBRD contains two core programs, one is NCBI BLAST and the other is Pearson’s correlation coefficient/hierarchical clustering (PCC-HC) under the CLI. For the cause of operation friendly, we constructed a GUI environment for core programs, also, we added a few subprograms to reduce the error caused by biological sequence file and make program execute automatically.